Saturday, October 24, 2009

“I don’t foresee a scenario where we’re going to double the price of LIVE any time in the next couple months”

You may have heard rumblings around the net that Microsoft's Xbox 360 LIVE monthly and yearly subscription may double in price in the next few years. Videogame analyst/financial/inside guru Michael Pachter suggested the company's $50 Xbox LIVE membership fee, which players pay to access special features, could double in the next couple years.

Michael Pachter was quoted: "You can't hook a guy into Xbox LIVE Gold if he's playing on a PC," said Pachter. "That's the other problem. You really want to hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on 360, play everything multiplayer, pay $50 a year, so that in a couple of years, it's $100 a year. That's going up, we all know that."

Microsoft’s spokesman David Dennis made some very interesting comments in a post-NPD conference call. The man with two first names David Dennis states: "I don't foresee a scenario where we're going to double the price of LIVE anytime in the next couple months," said Dennis.

According to that statement, it's feasible that a price increase for Xbox 360 LIVE can happen as early as the first of next year. The fact the Dennis mentions the next couple of months makes me think, he either misspoke and meant a couple of years or he knows something that he is not telling.

To throw my two cents into the pot--with the advent of 1080p HD Streaming arriving on Xbox 360 in the near future there has to be a huge cost associated with such a feature. Sony is currently making a killing charging a premium for Blu-ray movies. I can see Microsoft increasing the cost of LIVE to cover the cost of 1080p streaming and at the same time adding a premium value to their service. It makes sense for Microsoft to go this route--plus many will still pay to play. Microsoft logic behind such a feat would be "why not", we have an establish game library and everyone that owns a 360 has a pretty sizable friend list. We have Games on Demand, 1080p HD streaming, Facebook, Tweeter and Netflix. Why wouldn't someone pay a $100.00($8.33 per month) a year to access these premium features?